The First Theft

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We have discussed my husband’s scheming plots here before. His sneaky thefts did not start with the iPod. The looting started long before that. His trickery is a repeating spiral of deception (this is where I feel the need to add for those that do not get my humor, that I am kidding. My husband is the sweetest man alive. The following story is told with tongue in cheek)

When my husband and I first got married, we had a little argument. It has been almost sixteen years. I have never let it go. I think this is not healthy.

You see, I was pregnant and all I wanted besides hamburgers, cake, and ice cream were Twix candy bars. I would buy them by the handful at the grocery store.

One day something tragic happened.

I opened the cupboard before I went to work and there lying on the shelf was the only survivor of my traumatic food binge from the night before. The gold wrapper of the Twix bar sparkled like tears in the fluorescent kitchen light. I thought about sparing the poor soul. But then I remembered he was made of chocolate. I patted his crinkly skin and vowed to end his torment the moment I got home from work. I gently shut the cupboard doors and begrudgingly left for work.

All day I daydreamed of my victim.

The gooey caramel that would spill forth when I bit into its chocolate flesh. The scream of the wrapper as I ripped it apart. The crunch of its cookie foundation as I devoured its essence.

I could not wait.

The moment I got home I ran to the cupboard. I threw open the doors expecting to see my gleaming golden prize.

Instead I saw…

Nothing.

There was nothing there.

I knew only one thing could have happened.

Someone else must have gotten to my source of happiness first.

I spun around and faced my husband who was innocently humming to himself as he fried some onions in a pan for dinner. He did not know he had the worst kind of monster behind him.

The hungry angry wife.

“Did you eat my Twix Bar?” I practically shouted. I really did not need to hear his answer. It was quite obvious that he had. There were two people who had a key to our apartment. The two people in the kitchen. And those two people had an unhealthy obsession with Twix Bars.

My husband spun around surprised. “N-n-n-o.”

“Well then, where is it? I left it right here before I left this morning.”

The candy thief My husband had composed himself while I spoke. Now he was indignant. “Well, I didn’t eat it. Maybe you ate it and forgot.”

Maybe I ate it and forgot?

The devoured Twix Bar probably boiled like lava in his stomach from the fire shooting from my eyes.

Six words had never made me madder.

As if I would not remember the experience of eating my chocolatey treat. As if I was some sort of candy eating creature who searched the cupboards and thoughtlessly devoured anything sweet in sight (let’s forget about the Twix’s brothers that had disappeared, themselves, throughout the week. This was simply about Twix himself and I knew I had not eaten him).

“I didn’t eat the Twix bar! You ate it! I know you ate it!”

“I didn’t eat it! I didn’t even know we had a Twix bar!”

“I know you did it. Just admit it.” (This was the time in our lives when our only VHS tape was a Chris Rock video. I am pretty sure he did not mean a candy bar when he said those lines).

“I didn’t do it!”

This went on and on.

For sixteen years. We go back and forth about the candy bar a few times a year. Isn’t that sweet?

But I know my husband ate my Twix Bar. I sometimes wish I could go back in time and go over the crime scene one more time. Smell his breath. His fingers. Check the trash can for the the wrapper. But I can’t. So now I just need him to admit the truth.

He has maintained his innocence for more than a decade. I don’t believe the facade for a second.

We have gone through years of Twix slogans taunting us on the television.

A few years ago Twix ran with the phrase, “Two for me. None for you.” I would glare at my husband and ask him in response to the commercial, “Did you write that?”

There is now the more recent campaign, “Need a moment. Chew it over with Twix.” I can perfectly picture him reliving the moment when I first asked him if he had eaten my golden candy bar. If only he had had a moment to think of a better answer…

I think my husband has a secret side job.

How else to explain the ads?

My children have been born and raised with the Twix homicide story. I have not asked them to take up the case when they get older. It is not a mystery. It is not an unsolved crime. We do not need a detective.

I know my husband did it.

Now I just need him to admit it.

Any ideas on how to catch a criminal? Do you ever have ridiculous fights with your partner? Did the Twix Bar get up and walk away from its captors? Most importantly, do you think he ate it?

In the words of the candy bar in question, “Try both and pick a side. Chew it over with Twix.”

My Husband’s Secret

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In keeping with my book pick up the month, “The Husband’s Secret,” I decided to share a story of my own. The book is dark. It is about a wife finding a letter addressed to her from her husband to be opened upon his death. The problem is: she opens it while he is still alive. And she finds he is hiding a dark secret.

My husband happens to have a little dark secret of his own.

With that in mind, I must include the following disclosure:

DEAR DAUGHTER, PLEASE READ THIS UPON MY DEATH…NEVER,

One day, a few months ago, my husband pulled a small white device from his pocket. He held it cupped in his hand. He looked dodgy. I could tell he was nervous.

“What have you got there?”

He looked up startled. He attempted to hide the object in his palm. I wasn’t buying it.

Neither were the kids who were in the room with us.

We gathered around him like a bunch of orangutans who had just discovered an empty cracker box.

He shielded the white object with his other hand.

“It’s nothing.”

It was obviously not “nothing.”

“Is that a new phone?” I asked.

“No.”

Well, heck, now I knew I had to find out what he was hiding.

“What is it?” Momma was getting upset.

My husband was getting more nervous.

“It’s just my iPod,” he said. I would have just accepted this. I have no idea what devices he has. And frankly, I don’t care.

But the kids?

The kids take inventory of this stuff.

“You got a new iPod?!” They were immediately clamoring over each other trying to see.

“Where’d you get it? When did you get it? Can I see it?”

My husband was still acting oddly. His eyes were shifty.

I could tell there was more to this story.

“I bought it a couple of months ago from NewEgg.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

This question was asked by the kids.

Not by me.

He is a grown man. If he wants to buy an iAnything, he can. iDon’tcare.

I do, however, care about someone lying to me.

And here is the thing. And probably the only time I will ever say this. If you miss this, you’re out of luck: You can’t lie to me. I can always. Always. Tell.

Especially if your “tell” is to break into giggles.

Ahem.

And, he, for whatever reason did not want the kids to see his device.

“So, you have a secret iPod?” I began my line of questioning.

“It’s not ‘secret.’ I just didn’t tell anyone about it.”

This went on and on as I tried to get out of him what he was obviously evading.

But he was stubbornly sticking with his lie. I let it go. Or got bored. One of the two.

I would make a terrible detective.

A few months went by and he did something sneaky. It was probably something stupid, like eating my candy bar, but the iPod was brought up again. I bide my time, folks.

“So, you’re saying you didn’t eat my candy bar? Is this like how you didn’t buy a new iPod?”

If you ever, ever need to get under my husband’s skin, all you have to do is accuse him of eating your candy bar. It is like accusing him of murder. He hates it. He didn’t eat anything!

And in an attempt to free himself of candy bar purgatory, otherwise known as our house, he finally admitted something to me. His deep dark secret. The reason he was waking up in terror.

“I’m not really left handed,” he said.

Okay. That’s not his secret. But that would have been way cooler. Especially if he was left handed.

“The iPod is really Our Daughter’s iPod,” he confessed.

“What?”

I wasn’t prepared for this new twist of events.

“She never uses it. She has her iPhone. I’ve been using it for six months. She has never even realized it’s gone.”

I pondered this. “Why didn’t you just ask her for it?”

“I did. She said, ‘no.'”

“Well, then why didn’t you buy yourself one? From NewEgg?”

“Because that’s stupid. This is a perfectly good iPod. No one was using it. She’ll never even know.”

And you know what? That probably would have been true.

Except, you know what they say about karma? Yea, well, they say she’ll catch up to you.

And she did.

About a month after having that conversation, my husband and I were laying in bed. I looked over to see what he was doing. He was fidgeting with “his” secret iPod.

I looked closer.

The whole screen was cracked.

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“You dropped Our Daughter’s iPod?!”

He looked up sheepishly. “Yea. It was kind of amazing. It barely hit the floor.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, are you going to get a new one?”

“Why would I do that? This one is perfectly fine!”

I looked at the shattered screen. Here is the other thing about my husband. He lives in a little town called, “Denial.” It’s quite an ugly little town. I sometimes visit him there. I am sure you have been there. Everyone has. Next time you go, could you tell my husband I’m looking for him? And for that Twix bar I know he ate. You’ll know where to find him. Just look for his office, it has the title, “Mayor” on the broken door.

I watched as his fingers navigated over the cracks. I rolled my eyes. And I ignored the problem. This is different from denial. This is avoidance. It’s super healthy.

A few more months passed. My husband still was in love with his secret cracked iPod.

And he had continued with his lie. And quite frankly, his theft for longer than I thought possible.

One day, my daughter and I were in the car. I think we were laughing about a candy bar my husband had eaten (not really, but I knew reading that would make him mad. And that equals a good laugh for me).

She turned to me and said, “It’s like his secret iPod!”

I stopped laughing. I stared at her.

This had just gotten real.

She wanted to continue the laughter, so she said, “What if his secret iPod was really my iPod?!!!” And then she laughed at the absurdity of that possibility.

“Have you ever thought of that?” I timidly questioned.

“Yes! I have!”

“Well! It! Is! It is your iPod!” I shrieked through the car as I burst into a puddle of laughter. Tears were streaming down my cheeks as I finally released the secret that had been trapped inside of me for months.

“WHAT?!”

My daughter half screamed and laughed in the car. And then what can only be described as a sitcom moment, she burst into giggles and said, “Oh Mom! You’re so funny! That’s a great joke!”

This only made me laugh harder.

We continued laughing at my “joke” until my son got into the car.

I’m chuckling about it right now.

Oh, what a cracked iPod we weave

When it’s not the one we receive.

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*There’s now more to this story: My Husband’s Secret Part II.